Roof Gardens are for Hiding
by The Hark-ness monster
Summary: Malik takes a trip to the market, with a reluctant Altair in tow. But Altair has his own plans to make this trip a little more pleasant...


Roof Gardens are for Hiding

Assassin's Creed

An Altair/Malik fanfiction

I twirled a feather, which I had stolen from Malik's pouch, between my fingers. As I stood close behind him while he read a book from one of the merchant stands I was sure to make good use of it.

Malik had needed to run some errands, such as collecting feathers and picking up some parchment and candles for the bureau. And of course I had nothing better to do so I tagged along. I should've known that was a mistake. Being Malik, of course he wasn't going to the market just for parchment and candles. Oh no. He would also look for books, incense, artwork furniture. Anything that would make the Jerusalem bureau more interesting. Lord knows he hated that place. It was like a prison, he had told me. But now I had my suspicions that he was prolonging our market trip just to make me pay for condemning him to the bureau in the first place.

We had already been out for nearly two hours and he was standing at yet another book stand. I thought I was going insane, bored out of my mind. So I looked at the feather in my hand, then up at him, then back at the feather. He seemed pretty involved with that book he had there. I was determined to have a little fun myself. A sly grin slid across my face as I lifted the feather and brushed it against Malik's ear.

It seemed he didn't notice at first but I _knew_ Malik. And I knew how to piss him off real fast. I ran the feather past the side of his face. Finally it drew a reaction.

"What are you doing?" he said without looking up from the book in his hands and I couldn't stop my lips from sliding across my teeth. "Altair…" he said threateningly, but I ignored him.

One more time I ran the feather past him softly, barely touching his skin.

"Stop that," he warned, but I did not.

I lifted the feather to his ear once more…He dropped the book and spun around, simultaneously grabbing my arm and holding me there with a threatening look in his eyes. But I still wore that smile, not missing the playful glint hidden deep in his dark brown irises.

"You do that one more time and you're going to regret it." His eyes narrowed.

"Is that a promise?" I mocked. His grip then clamped down on my wrist hard and while still maintaining pressure, his hand wriggled into mine and pulled the feather from between my fingers.

Shooting me a warning glance, he released me and said quietly, leaning in, "Watch yourself." He gestured with the feather at a group of guards to my right.

They were watching us, talking, whispering to each other, no doubt about my unacceptable social behavior. Openly flirting with another man. Unheard of.

I gave them a wicked sneer and right then I was determined to push this to the limit.

Malik took the book up once again and returned the feather to the pouch on his belt but I wasn't going to need that again. Playing with feathers seemed so inadequate now. Instead I glanced at the guards one more time and smacked Malik right on the ass.

At that point he abandoned the book and I ran. I just laughed and pushed past the crowd as he yelled, "Hey!" and sprinted after me.

We dodged our way through the afternoon crowd of the Jerusalem marketplace. We ran through the streets, I turned a corner, he followed and I know I heard him laugh after yelling "Get back here!"

People would stop and watch as we rushed past laughing. Nothing stopped us. Nothing put an end to our simple, childish fun, and for that I was thankful. Lord knew Malik needed to stop worrying and just run sometimes. And that ass had been just begging me to smack it too. Ha. What would he do without me?

Thought I was nowhere near tired of our game, I decided to take our escapade elsewhere. I grabbed onto a low window and climbed, all the way up to the roof.

Malik quickly caught up, stopped and huffed for a moment before looking up at me as I proudly smiled down at him from the higher ground.

"No fair!" he yelled and put his only hand on his hip.

"What are you talking about? It's completely fair." I chuckled but he only smiled beneath a playful glare. "Aww come on! There's a ladder right there," I pointed down to my left at the wooden ladder against the wall. He turned to it, sighed and then headed over.

As I watched him start to climb with a struggle I had another idea. I observed his movement for a little while (it's not every day you see a one armed man climbing a ladder) but then I turned away and slithered into a nearby, abandoned roof garden.

There I waited. I heard the shift of his clothes and patter of his boots as he pulled himself onto the roof and stood up.

He paused and looked around for a moment with a grin on his face, I could see through a tear in the rough fabric. I knew my hiding spot did not throw him off for a second but it wasn't meant to. My lips curved into a private smile.

Before long he stepped up to the ramshackle structure and perched on one of the short walls as he pushed the curtain aside.

"You're going to have to be a little more creative to hide from me, Altair. I am a former assassin, you know," he said with sarcasm and sugar in his voice.

"It wasn't you I was hiding from," I told him as I clenched my fists around the fabric of his robes and pulled him down, towards me, into the garden. The dead plants beneath his feet rustled as he shifted closer. My hand fell across his lower back to keep him close against me.

"Then who were you hiding from?" he said in a hushed, low voice, his breath against my skin. I leaned in, so close; my lips nearly brushed his ear and whispered, "Everyone else."

He looked at me, saw my face and got the picture. I barely gave him enough time to smile before I leaned down and kissed him. His lips worked, pushing against mine, our bodies pressed together.

He pulled away for a moment but didn't say anything, just smiled and laughed a little. Then he leaned back into the kiss and pulled me down with him as we laid together in the garden.

And there we hid from the world. From the judging eyes and hateful hearts of humanity. My mind thought of nothing but Malik; his lips, his hand, his legs with mine, the occasional sigh or moan deep in his chest.

"If this is how these market trips turn out then I think we should make them more often," he said in a rough voice and raised an eyebrow.

"Hmm," I began. "Is there any way we could skip the shopping and go straight to this?" I asked before softly kissing along the line of his jaw.

He smiled and brown eyes met mine of gold. "Don't count on it."As he chuckled, his chest moved beneath mine. "But maybe if you're lucky," he added.

Hey, it was a start.


End file.
